Michelangelo: Sculpture [antikvár]

Life Michelangelo Buonarroti was born in Caprese, a small hill town some sixty miles east oL Florence, on 6 March 1475. He was the son of Lodovico di Leonardo Buonarroti Simoni and Francesca di Neri di Miniato del Sera. As a boy in Florence he was at first a pupil of the grammarian Francesco da Urbino, but at thirteen he made friends with Francesco Granacci who introduced him to the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio. In 1489 he was accepted into the ' Sculpture Garden ' of Lorenzo de' Medici. This was a school under the direction of the sculptor and antiquarian Bertoldo di Giovanni. He did well there, well enough to attract the admiration of Lorenzo and the friendship of the artists and men of letters of his circle. When Lorenzo the Magnificent died on 8 April 1492, Michelangelo remained apart for a while to work on his own. Though recalled to the Palazzo Medici by Piero, Lorenzo's son, he soon left again, sensing danger in the tense political atmosphere, and fled to Venice. On his way back he found work in Bologna and stayed there some time. When he eventually returned to Florence, he found the power of the Medici overthrown and the puritan republic of Savonarola established in full vigour. He received a commission from Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici Popolani, but soon left for Rome with the idea of recovering a work of his which had been sent there. He stayed in Rome until 1499, and there executed the first works which revealed an artistic stature beyond that of his rivals: the Bacchus carved for Jacopo Galli, and the Pieta for St Peter's. On his return to Florence he began his David, and later undertook the cartoon for the Battle of Caseína in competition with Leonardo da Vinci, then at the peak of his powers. This cartoon in the great Council Chamber of the Palazzo Vecchio, together with the Battle of Anghiari which Leonardo had already begun there, was to be remembered as the ' school of the world' by the young artists who grew to maturity during the Cinquecento.